Hallow-Reno!
by Tashasaurous
Summary: Halloween-themed story; Reno goes through a few series of misdaventures of spooks and frights, from his childhood to his adulthood. Rated T, just in case. Also starring Rude, Tseng, Elena, Cloud, Zack and, well whoever is in here.(Except Hojo and those nasty shinra workers I hate)
1. Story-1

**Author's note: I know this is late, but I couldn't think of anything during Halloween. I suck at halloween stories. This is set within the "Familiar" universe, though none of the characters or storyline are mine-Square Enix own all rights.**

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><p><em><strong>Hallow-Reno!<strong>_

**Story-1.**

Seven year old Reno was out and about once again during the cold months. He was used to it, though he wished he would see the snow he'd seen on TV. In the park, he played with kids around his age, though they weren't actually his 'friends', but he enjoyed playing none the less. They played all shorts of games, and he wondered if he would be allowed to go trick or treating. Reno had heard about kids who dressed up in costumes that they go around the neighborhood to knock on people's doors to get free candy.

It wasn't until one kid-Jonnhy, Honny, Sonny or whatever-had decided to get five kids around since he thought of a ghost story since kids in the Slums didn't normally invite their friends to their houses for sleep-overs. Reno was one of those kids and he, two other boys and two girls gathered underneath the weird slide and sat around in a circle, which the other kid began.

"Ever heard of Auron the shape-shifting monster?" The boy-whatever his name was-began. The other boy, about six years old, and the two girls shivered and they and Reno, who so was unfazed, shook their heads.

The boy,(who has brown hair, by the way,) smirked and continued, "Well, on a dark and stormy night, five kids around our age would sneak out and wander around just for fun. But, as dumb as they are, they didn't hear about the mysterious man in a red coat, large big sword, bigger and longer than others."

Reno was starting to become interested in the story, and listened on. The other kids, one boy who had darkish-blonde-brown hair and blue eyes, shivered like a whimp, and the two girls, one with black hair and another with blonde hair, clinged onto each other in fright.

"Anyway, this guy also had a scar on his right eye, and he was strong and tall, mean, scary and dangerous. Do ya know who this guy is?" the brown-haired boy continued.

"A SOLDIER?" Reno asked curiously. He heard about SOLDIER, and he heard that the highest ranking ones get to wear suitable colours, like the great Sephiroth and the famous Genesis did(Sephiroth wore black and silver, and Genesis wore red).

The brown-haired boy smirked, "Nope. He's a killer, and..." he paused dramatically, then continued, "A monster. He can look like a person, and pretend to be nice, but he is always blood thirsty, and can change himself into any kind of monster; Like a large dragon that eats people-swallowing them whole."

While the three other kids gasped in in fright, Reno was confused as he pointed out, "But if he's blood thirsty, he'd have to chew people up first before swallowing them. Or he'd end up only tasting people's skins and clothes, and we're not that tasty."

"Oh he finds a way to taste their blood." The brown-haired boy smirked. "You see, his tongue isn't in his mouth like normal people have. It's in his stomach, along with other sharp teeth that tears the flesh apart and licks the blood before the stomach devours them."

"That's gross!" the black-haired girl shrieked.

"Not only that," the brown-haired boy continued, "But his favorite thing to eat was...kids like us. So, these kids ran out one night and wanted to play. But the monster-man had his eyes on them, followed them everywhere, until they finally see him. He swung his sword at them, and they screamed, running away, trying to get home." he smirked as he caught sight Reno now shivering a bit himself.

The brown-haired boy then continued, "But they never made it back. It was so dark and stormy, they ended up lost and trapped in the dead end in the valley, and the man cornered them, turning into a huge dragon with long claws and sharp teeth, and gobbled them up, then turned back into a person and walked away, his laughter echoing in the night forever."

He paused at the sight of the other kids, then finished, "None of them were ever seen again."

Reno swallowed nervously, not wanting to admit that the story actually scared him. However, he was nervous, scared that the story might actually be true and that the monster-Auron, might be around. Seeing the light from the sky behind the still built-plates, he knew that he had to get home soon.

"Before you call me a chicken," Reno said, standing up, "But I'm not scared of some dumb story. I just have to get home, or my parents will worry."

The other kids noticed what Reno noticed and though the brown-haired boy was sastified that he actually managed to make the other kids scared, they all agreed that it was time to head back home, and once they said their goodbyes, they all went into different directions to return home. Reno made his way through Sector 3 alone, as it was getting darker and darker.

The young red-head was getting nervous, flinching everytime he heard a noise, looking around just in case, before he muttered to himself, "I'm just hearing things. That story isn't real." and he repeated this to himself several times, while making himself go faster in order to get back home.

He was becoming increasingly scared. Just then, he heard footsteps-approaching him. His blue eyes widened in horror, and, without even turning to see who or what it was, Reno made a run for it, terrified out of his mind. But the footsteps seemed to be chasing him, and Reno tried to run faster. All he wanted was to get back home.

Unfortunately, he ended up tripping and fell flat onto the ground, and Reno knew that the thing behind him had caught up with him. Knowing that there's no escape, all he could do was cover the back of his head and braced himself, tears already forming and falling from his eyes, and he screamed as he was about to meet his end.

"Please don't eat me!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Why would I eat you?" asked a male voice, sounding like an adult. It made Reno shiver even more and he even began to cry, despite mentally scolding himself in doing so.

Reno felt a hand on his shoulder and his shivering got even worse.

For some reason, his crying caused the person behind him to panic, "H-hey! D-Don't cry, kid! I'm sorry for scaring you. Calm down, okay?" he stumbled.

"Good going, Angeal." another male voice, a more smoother one, said in sarcasm. "You made a kid cry."

"Hey! I didn't know this kid would freak out, Genesis! Gimme a break!" the other male, named Angeal, protested.

Hearing the name Genesis made Reno immediately stop crying, and he looked up in surprise, before turning around, and his eyes widened in shock. There were two men, one who is obviously Genesis with orange-red smooth hair, deep blue eyes, wearing a red leather coat, and the other, who Reno assumed is Angeal, with black-smooth hair with blue eyes, and a uniform that says SOLDIER 1st Class(not written, but you get the idea) with a massive sword on his back.

Reno has heard about these two; they were the same age as Sephiroth and while the three of them were actually just turned thirteen, all of them already made it to the ranks they were in now, unlike the other SOLDIERs around their age who would only just training to pass 3rd Class.

Feeling a little less scared, Reno turned fully around but still sat on the ground, which caught the attention of the two young SOLDIERs. He couldn't help but mutter, "You're...you're SOLDIERs?"

"Pretty much, kid." Angeal said, "I'm sorry for scaring you."

Feeling a little guilty for being paranoid, Reno grinned sheepishly, and said, "It's okay. I was just paranoid because I thought you were that Auron-Monster that eats people with his stomach."

Angeal and Genesis glanced at each other, dumbfounded at hearing this kind of story.

Eventually, Genesis just said, "That's silly."

"More like gross." Angeal thought. He then said, "Anyway, I think we should get this kid back home before any of us get into trouble."

Genesis agreed, and during the short trip back home, Reno felt a bit better for company, even if it was strangers, but these two were actually not that bad. The young seven year old redhead wasn't interested in joining ShinRa, but he felt safer with these two at the moment. When they reached his house, Reno thanked them before heading inside where he was very happy to be home with his mom and dad, while Angeal and Genesis headed back to ShinRa building since they snuck out just for fun, since Sephiroth was sent on a mission that day.

Reno remained in his mother's arms, as Alana asked, "Reno? Sweetie, are you alright?"

"What happened?" Richard asked firmly.

The young boy looked at his parents and sheepishly muttered, "I got spooked by a ghost story."

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><p><strong>I'm making this story into a mini-series kind of thing. So, look out for the next Reno-spooked story in the next chapter! Review if you like, and share your thoughts on this story.<strong>


	2. Story-2

**Author's note: Here's story 2! Not that I own Final Fantasy VII, though I wish I did.**

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><p><strong>Hallow-Reno!<strong>

**Story-2.**

It's been nine months since Reno joined ShinRa after being rescued by Tseng and Rude from Sa'luk and his men. The fifteen year old redhead was a Turk now himself, and while it wasn't the best job in the world, it was the best thing that ever happened to him. A few months ago, after his graduation, Reno still felt alone, but after his new colluage Rude gave him comfort, the redhead now knew he wasn't alone anymore. Despite the loss of his parents, Reno had always had someone watching over him-Tseng who after seven years had finally decided to bring the teen in. Then the redhead had found a friend within Rude, whom he can always trust.

Reno also made some other friends with the other Turks, and like all Turks, he deeply respected Director Veld whom Reno had already considered as a second father to him. Right now, as it was halloween in a few days, Reno and other Turks around his age and Rude's age, including Reno's best friend, had gathered in the Turks' living area as they had the night off, and were telling scary ghost stories. While the redhead had gotten over the 'Auron-Monster' story a long time ago, he still likes to listen or tell ghost stories.

Right now, the story he and the others were listening was, well, let's put it this way, **the** _most_ **boring** _story_ they had ever listened to in the history of story telling. A couple of them already fell asleep halfway, Reno was reading a random book he managed to find earlier, and Rude was half-dozing.

"...And the house and those it ate were never seen again." finished Jean, the blonde-haired turk wearing an eye-patch concluded, waiting for everyone's reactions. All he got were bored stares, sleeping looks, and others completely ignoring him. He looked a bit hurt and shrugged, "What?"

Reno, seeing this, thought, '_Finally_.' and muttered, "That was the lamest story I've ever heard, man."

"Ditto." Keith, the dark-navy-haired Turk, agreed.

The others muttered their own agreements, while some like Rude were starting to wake up. Jean looked at them annoyed, challenging, "Huh? Fine, then how about someone voulenteers to tell a scarier story then."

"As a matter of fact, I've got a story that is based within the ShinRa Manor back in Nibelhiem." Keith smirked, holding his hand for the touch. As he was a resident of Nibelhiem, he heard many rumors about the mansion since he was seven years old.

"What's so scary about the ShinRa manor?" Reno asked, having heard that the mansion was sometimes used for something. He then remembered that it was used for Hojo's experiments sometimes, and that was scary enough, so he just muttered, "Nevermind. It's already scary with Professor Creep-show using it once in a blue moon."

"If Professor Hojo was here and you were calling him that, I bet you'd be used for an experiment and you can kiss your career and ass goodbye." Brian pointed out. He was a young green-haired male with blue eyes. Sitting next to him was his sister Arlene, matching green hair and sea-green eyes as well. They were both twins, and were a year younger than Reno.

Reno quirked an brow at the male green-haired Turk, and muttered, "Who do you think I am-Mickey Mouse who was trying to save his pooch from a Mad Doctor who wants to place it's head onto a Chicken's body? I'm not that stupid. I value my life, thank you. Besides, we Turks are untouchable around the science department."

"It's amazing how Hojo manages to keep coming out alive, but then again, he's crazy." Keith spoke up, getting everyone's attentions back to him.

"Why's that?" Arlene asked.

The dark-navy-haired Turk smirked, "Because that place is haunted."

"Oooooh! Spooky!" Reno and Brian mocked together and laughed, only for both of them to get slapped on the back of the heads by both Rude and Arlene. The two males glared at both Reno's partner and Brian's sister.

"Just hurry up and get on with your story, Keith." Jean grumbled.

"With pleasure." Keith smirked again, before holding the flash-light at the bottom of his face to make himself look terrifying. "Okay, it begins around 25 years ago..." he began.

_The ShinRa Manor was used for executives, but long before the Mako reactor was build there, they say that a Shinra worker went there for several days. He was seemingly to be standing by for the now dead scientest Lucrecia Cresent who was an assistant of Hojo himself. But the version I'm about to give you is different from that._

_They say that since around 25 years ago, someone walking up to gaze at the mansion heard a terrifying roar, someone screaming to stop, then multiple screaming, and then, an agonised scream. One day, when the Shinra excetives were not in the mansion, someone actually snuck in and went inside to investigate, and as he entered, he could smell blood-lots of blood._

"You mean like someone's been murdered?" Reno asked, skeptical but finding himself strangely curious. "If that happened, why didn't he report it?"

"I'm getting to that." Keith replied, before continuing his story.

_Wondering where the blood was coming from, the guy decided to check the entire mansion for some clues. He went to the upper level, and some say that he found a secret staircase that leads underground. There, it was an underground cave, and among it, a door that leads to somewhere. They say that you need a code to get the key that unlocks the door. For a reason as the guy was good at unlocking things, he managed to pick the lock instead, and what he found made him realise why the place wasn't used as much._

_Inside the room, you could hear breathing, and someone sleeping. There were three coffens, but only one was closed._

Keith smirked as the others looked at each other, bewildered at this news, before they turned to look at him again as he continued.

_He wasn't a believer in ghosts or vampires, but what he found made him change his mind. The person approached the coffen, and he actually screamed in terror as there was a man in red, sleeping away. Terrified as he realised he just found a real, and I do mean, real, Vampire, he ran out of the room, closed the door shut and ran out of the mansion as fast as he could. He told the villagers the next day on what he found and told them to stay well out of it and let only ShinRa workers enter, as it was deemed haunted ever since._

"And no one dared to enter the mansion again, no matter how brave you were." Keith concluded. Some of the other Turks were looking pale as a ghost, while others were skeptical yet surprised. Even Rude, who didn't show much of his emotion thanks to his shades, looked a bit white.

Reno eventually said, "So, basically, not only Creep-Show uses that place for experiments, but it's also haunted because it has a vampire? Sure, your story is creepy as hell, and I have to admit, it's the creepiest story I've heard all day, but, seriously, I don't think the vampire stuff is true. Was there any proof that there was a guy sleeping in a coffin and that he was a vampire and not just one of the proffessor's sick experiments?"

Everyone was silent at that. He did have a good point, and all the vampire stuff came from movies. Even Keith admitted, "Well, no. You got a point there. But then again, everyone back at home were a little bit crazy. There were even rumors about the Nibel mountains being haunted with ghosts, other than being filled with monsters and big-ass dragons."

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><p>A day later, Reno had been sent with Tseng to Nibelhiem for some investigation in the reactor in the mountains. Reno had been curious to enter the mansion, but he had to sneak in without Tseng knowing, or he'd get into trouble. Besides, the redhead figured that the manor was less scary than what he would expect inside the first Mako reactor. So, following the guide up towards the reactor, the two Turks entered while the guide waited outside, creeped out about the reactor that he immediately agreed to stay out.<p>

"I don't want to go in anyway, sirs." said the Guide who was in his mid thirties.

'_Good call._' Reno thought, but he didn't voice his thoughts. He followed his superior into the mako reactor, which was far bigger on the inside than it was in the inside, and boy it was just as creepy as he thought. There was an uncomfortable and awful stench of mako, and Reno could've sworn that it also smelt of flesh too, making his stomach turn and twist.

It only got worse when they entered a room filled with pods, and the glow was red instead of the mako green. It reminded Reno of a womb, and he had no idea if it was a scary memory from before his own birth or just his imagination. The latter made more sense, though. There were stairs leading up to the next level, and there was a locked door, with a large sign that read out in huge letters, "JENOVA".

Seeing the word on the wall, Reno was curious as he titled his head to the side. There was something about this Jenova that made him feel a bit supicious.

"Hey, Tseng?" He said to get the older man's attention. When the Wutaiian turned to look at the redhead, Reno asked, "What's Jenova?"

Tseng was silent for a moment, before realising that he knew this day would come and like other young Turks, Reno would know the knowlage. So, he explained, "Jenova is an Ancient, discovered by our scientests around 30 or 40 years ago. According to the Director, Jenova was named by the late scientest Proffessor Gast who passed away thirteen years ago."

"An Ancient?" Reno thought, then blinked in surprise and muttered, "So wait, are you saying that the Ancients are real? They're not just some made up story kids would hear?"

"Where did you hear that?" Tseng inquired.

Reno shrugged, "My mom used to tell me stories about the Lifestream when I was a kid; ya know, before she and Dad got killed by Sa'luk and his men."

"The Ancients used to exist," Tseng replied, "However, Jenova remained unmovable for years. SOLDIER members were injected with her cells."

"With...Jenova cells?" Reno paled as he looked at door again. "So wait, people who enter SOLDIER get some magic-lady's cells inside their bodies? Whoa, there. If that's the case, then no wonder Sephiroth's just as powerful. Sure glad I didn't decide to join SOLDIER." he muttered. He then asked, "Hold on, so the Ancients are pretty much exctint?"

Tseng sighed, "Yes and no. There is one survivor left. I was actually sent to retrieve her, on the day that you decided to follow me in curiosity."

Reno thought about what his mentor told him, and remembered that day; the day when he first met Tseng, the day when Sa'luk and his men were looking for Reno himself, and the day...when he tragicly lost his parents. But he also realised what Tseng just said, and gapped in surprise.

"Hold on! There's still one left?" Reno asked. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Aerith, and she currently lives with her foster mother in the slums. She's two years younger than you. Her mother must've passed away when they both escaped the labs when she was only three years old." Tseng explained, as he knew that Reno would have to know sooner or later.

"Aerith..." Reno muttered the name softly to himself. He then realised, "I think I met her when I went down to visit my old house a month ago. I kinda noticed her all alone and I thought that there was something weird, so I followed her to the church, and, surprisingly, there were flowers there. Kinda explaining why there were almost like zillions of them outside the house where I first met you."

"I see." Tseng muttered.

Reno sighed, "Who'd have thunk? Aerith the last Ancient. I never even thought that I'd meet an Ancient for real. She looks like a normal and pretty girl to me."

"We have work to do." Tseng changed the subject and wanted to get the mission done.

Reno grumbled at this, though he had noticed that Tseng was a bit softer when he mentioned Aerith. The redhead thought if Tseng had a crush on Aerith, despite the age difference. Though it was a cute thought, he dismissed it. '_Tseng having a crush on a pretty girl? No way! He's way too married for his job to have a thing for girls_.'

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><p>That night, seeing how they'll be spending the entire week in Nibelhiem, Reno decided to have some fun, and waited until everyone was fast asleep, before silently sneaking out and headed over towards the ShinRa Manor. He was still curious on whether the vampire story was true or not.<p>

He squeezed himself into the bars of the gate, before silently made his way to the old wooden doors of the ShinRa manor. It didn't look much creepy during the day, but now that it was in the middle of the night, Reno found himself nervous, but he wasn't going to chicken out now.

When he entered, he cringed in disgust on how bad the place was. "Man, this is worse than I thought." Reno whispered to himself as he looked around. He remembered that the secret stair-case was in one of the bed rooms on the higher level, so, he carefully climbed up the aging stair-case and checked the only room he found.

Finding that he needed codes first, Reno explored the mansion and, finding some sort of clues, he decided to guess. After ten tries, he found the enterance and carefully climbed down the spiral stair-case, reaching the bottom. He was surprised that the cave part was true, and now he was getting supicious.

'_I still think the vampire part is dud_.' Reno thought to himself, but he found one door on the side of the wall. Finding the keyhole, the gut feeling inside Reno was getting worse, but he wanted to see if the story was real or not. Taking out a paper-clip he brought with him, Reno fiddled with the lock as he was good at pick-locking.

Finally, the door opened, and Reno pushed it open, and, as if being paraniod, placed a rock in front of it to keep it from slamming shut and trapping him inside. What he saw made him turn more pale than he already was. His blue eyes widened and his mouth shuddered open, unable to believe what he was seeing.

Three coffins, two open and one closed, in a small room. Just as Keith said. Curious getting the better of him, Reno slowly stepped closer, even though his gut told him to make a friggin' run for it. Placing shaky hands on the lid of the middle coffin, Reno used most of his strength to push it open, mentally cursing that Rude wasn't here.

Opening it a little to take a peak, when Reno looked, he immediately backed away in horror, cursing, "Holy crap!" before stopping. He then cursed at himself for being too loud, and was now scared that the figure he saw inside the coffin would wake up.

"Damn, there is a vampire here." He whispered to himself. He then noticed that the 'vampire' wasn't coming out. Risking to look again, Reno slowly stepped closer, and when he looked, the 'vampire' was seemingly in a very deep sleep. The man was very pale, looking around in his late twenties, red cape, and black leather suit, red bandana, black long hair, a strange golden gaunlet on his left hand, and matching gold weird shoes. Reno also noticed a pistol around the man's belt. Was he once a fighter before coming a vampire and sleeping here?

Deciding that he didn't want to disturb the vampire and get turned into one himself, Reno slowly and carefully slid the lid closed, still scared out of his mind, afraid that the vampire would just suddenly wake up and put an end to him. It was ten times worse than what he experienced so far, and now Reno was a believer of vampires.

Once he knew that the lid was shut closed, he immediately ran to escape the mansion, and, luckly it was still night-time, Reno closed every door during his exit, and silently returned to the inn, changed into his pjs, and slid into bed, knowing that he'll be suffering nightmares for a while.

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><p><em><strong>Reno was running, running for his life. He didn't know where he was going, but he had to escape from the vampire that was chasing after him for his blood. Reno looked like to see if the vampire was getting closer, only to bump into someone who immediately grabbed hold of him.<strong>_

_**His blood running cold, Reno looked up and to his horror, it was the vampire who smiled and muttered, "You cannot run from me, child."**_

_**"P-please lemme go." Reno pleaded, not even bothering to hide the fear from his voice. "I don't wanna die or become a vampire."**_

_**The Vampire didn't reply. Instead, he leaned forward and started doing what Reno was terrified the most. Cranking Reno's head to the side, the redhead shut his eyes and whimpered, bracing for the shearing pain. The vampire's teeth digged into his skin as he screamed loudly, trying to escape, but he felt his consciousness fade away, his blood being sucked as the vampire was drinking from him.**_

_**Reno then began to cry as tears fell, which, for both a Turk and himself at his age, was really embarrassing.**_

_**He then feel limp as he slipped into a death-like slumber.**_

"Reno...Reno."

Snapping his eyes awake, Reno gasped as he quickly jolted up-right in bed, startling Tseng before the latter regained his posture, while Reno panted, glancing around as he tried to remember where he was. He then remembered that he was in the guest-room in the Inn in Nibelhiem, and Tseng was with him.

"Um," He began dumbly as he looked at the older man, "Do I have anything unusual on my neck?" Reno asked.

While puzzled, Tseng decided to check and Reno allowed him to see for any injury. There was none. "No. You're perfectly all right, Reno."

Reno sighed in relief, muttering, "I was havin' a nightmare, then." relieved that he was just having a bad dream. For one thing, Reno decided never to venture into haunted mansions for the rest of his life. He would venture into abandoned floors, but they weren't as scary as the ShinRa manor or the Mako reactors as far as he was concerned.

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><p>Back inside the room within the manor, the man inside the coffin slowly and sleepily blinked his eyes open, only to find the same door above him, sighed before closing his eyes again.<p>

'_Who was that young man thinking I was a vampire?_' he thought to himself before returning to his deep slumber for the next years to come.

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><p><strong>While I'm not a vampire fan, and considering that Vincent isn't a vampire, I think I can make this an exception. Please do review, I'd really appreciate it, thanks. Look out for the next and maybe final halloween story on Reno's adventures.<strong>


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